Lake George, New York
Andrew W. Melrose, late 19th C.

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Lake George
Detail
Detail
Andrew W. Melrose (1836-1901)
Lake George
Chromolithograph, Proof Edition, No. 770.
Raphael Tuck & Sons, New York: Late 19th Century
Printed Signature, Lower left. Printed Title, Lower Right
24 x 36 inches
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A bucolic view of Lake George, in New York's Hudson River Valley, where Andrew Melrose painted some of his best-known landscapes. In the foreground a group of tourists has docked their canoes after fishing at a small point (Sabbath Bay Point) on the shore near a cabin. It is early fall, and the foliage on surrounding trees has begun to turn color. Other boats are on the lake, in the background, the Adirondack mountains beneath a blue sky with white clouds.

This history of Lake George, and the scene shown, are described on the print in the lower right margin:

"Indian name 'Horicon' meaning 'silvery waters' is bordered by high hills and rugged cliffs that hang over the water; the distances are rich and delicate beyond description, the fading of greens into blues, then lessening into the tenderest of mists are combinations beyond comparison. The view is looking toward a projecting point of land, known as 'Sabbath Bay Point,' the scene of many fights between Colonists and Indians. It is the most frequented and famous of American Lakes."

Born in Scotland, Andrew W. Melrose emigrated to the United States as a young man and spent most of his artistic career in New Jersey, working out of studios in Hoboken and Guttenberg. He frequently exhibited at the National Academy of Design, and is best known for his paintings and etchings of landscapes, especially the Hudson River Valley, the Berkshires, New York City, North Carolina and the West, as well as scenes painted on trips abroad to Ireland, Austria and Cornwall. Melrose is also well known for genre scenes of horses, stagecoaches and Native Americans.

Melrose produced several chromolithographs like this one based on his paintings. His style was rooted in the Romantic Realism popular at the time, although landscapes done in the 1880s show the influence of French Impressionism in his greater attention to the effects of light and atmosphere and a brighter palette. This is a proof edition, with color coded correction bar printed in the lower margin, as issued.

Inscriptions: "Published by Raphael Tuck & Sons, Fine Art Publishers, 72/73 Coleman St. City, London. 298 Broadway, New York, 5 Passage des Pelites Ecuries, Paris." Trade Mark stamp on lower left margin. Legend in lower portion of print: "This Design is the Property of Andrew Melrose The Artist and Copyrighted at Washington."

Poem featured in lower right hand
margin by I.N. Tarbox, D.D.:

Amid these breezy northern woods
The mountain brooks are straying,
Now leaping down, the rocky dells
Now in calm eddies playing.

Come to this realm of ancient peace
To these pure cooling fountains,
Where dwell the simple charms that lark
Round God's uplifted mountains

Our match lovers are the lonely heights,
The summits grey and hoary,
What time the summer suns go down
Engirt with cloudy glory.